mighty city of New York. In the author's time this place had
lost its importance:--

"Communipaw is at present but a small village pleasantly situated,
among rural scenery, on that beauteous part of the Jersey shore
which was known in ancient legends by the name of Pavonia,[1] and
commands a grand prospect of the superb bay of New York. It is
within but half an hour's sail of the latter place, provided you
have a fair wind, and may be distinctly seen from the city. Nay, it
is a well-known fact, which I can testify from my own experience,
that on a clear still summer evening, you may hear, from the
Battery of New York, the obstreperous peals of broad-mouthed
laughter of the Dutch negroes at Communipaw, who, like most other
negroes, are famous for their risible powers. This is peculiarly
the case on Sunday evenings, when, it is remarked by an ingenious
and observant philosopher who has made great discoveries in the
neighborhood of this city, that they always laugh loudest, which he
attributes to the circumstance of their having their holiday
clothes on.

"These negroes, in fact, like the monks of the dark ages, engross
all the knowledge of the place, and being infinitely more
adventurous and more knowing than their masters, carry on all the
foreign trade; making frequent voyages to town in canoes loaded
with oysters, buttermilk, and cabbages. They are great astrologers,
predicting the different changes of weather almost as accurately as
an almanac; they are moreover exquisite performers on
three-stringed fiddles; in whistling they almost boast the
far-famed powers of Orpheus's lyre, for not a horse or an ox in the
place, when at the plough or before the wagon, will budge a foot
until he hears the well-known whistle of his black driver and
companion. And from their amazing skill at casting up accounts upon
their fingers, they are regarded with as much veneration us were
the disciples of Pythagoras of yore, when initiated into the sacred
quaternary of numbers.

"As to the honest burghers of Communipaw, like wise men and sound
philosophers, they never look beyond their pipes, nor trouble their
heads about any affairs out of their immediate neighborhood; so
that they live in profound and enviable ignorance of all the
troubles, anxieties, and revo